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That seems odd to me. The series is going to end so soon but he still has no idea how Madara will be defeated? This really has me doubting that the series will end in a satisfying way. I am starting to get the impression that he just wants it over and done with.

If we consider that 2013 started with Chapter: 617, which was the chapter that Neji died. That really shows how little a year is in terms of content. 2013 didn't even cover the entire Juubi fight. So that means that if Naruto is ending this year we basically have time for only a couple major battles. From the time that Obito became the Juubi's Jinnchuuriki until now, was almost half a year. Kishimoto is going to need to wrap things up extremely quickly if he really intends to finish the series this year. I honestly don't see how he will be able to do it and make it satisfying. At its current pace the fight with Madara alone will need to be at least 10 chapters or more. I still think that Naruto and Sasuke have a lot of issues to work out. Not to mention all the major mysteries that haven't been revealed, such as, what the hell happened to the Whirlpool village, what is the connection between the Uzumaki and the Sage of Six Path's, what is Orochimaru's real objective, how are the Animal Sages connected etc. There seem to be so many loose ends that remain. Way too much to explain in one year considering this year was basically just one long battle.

Another problem is that there still seems to be a very major gap in power between Naruto and Sasuke when compared to Madara. Madara is obviously in a different league. The only way I could see Naruto winning is if he becomes the Juubi's Jinnchuuriki. That would make Sasuke basically irrelevant though which would defeat the purpose of his entire storyline.

Anyway, I guess I will just have to wait and see. Since this is the last year I guess I won't have to wait long, a lot of answers should start coming very fast.

About being the Juubi's Jinchuurikri...this may indeed be where the story is going, with 2 sets of Juubi. The older Juubi being control (like a slave) by Madara by virtue of his Rinnegan, and a new Juubi inside Naruto, formed by the Chakras the Bijuu gave him, but instead of slavish control, the new juubi is a willing co-equal partner.

The story gives Naruto the edge over Madara in power because his Juubi is motivated by friendship (Power of Freindship etc etc tec). At the end of the battle, Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou will be needed to combine with NAruto and the Juubi to form a new combination SO6P. The New SO6P will restore the Land, and the people, and a new Cycle will begin. This new cycle will be forged from friendship and mutual understanding..I think this (although soppy) is the Moral of the Story of Naruto..the power of friendship to overcome differences.

I am not perfect andI defy you to prove otherwise Growing Old Gracefully is an Oxymoron ... Mostly Moron !

I can understand Kishi did make Madara to be incredibly powerful so his defeat would also be something difficult to pull off. This is why he needed a break to be able to think about this a bit more clearly and come up with good ideas.

We are in the middle of the last fight so it's possible to at least wrap up with Madara and get on to the Sasuke vs Naruto fight by the end of the year.

- the Kakashi ANBU side story looks like it will have Itachi and Yamoto, I hope it's good I haven't watched the anime in a while.

About being the Juubi's Jinchuurikri...this may indeed be where the story is going, with 2 sets of Juubi. The older Juubi being control (like a slave) by Madara by virtue of his Rinnegan, and a new Juubi inside Naruto, formed by the Chakras the Bijuu gave him, but instead of slavish control, the new juubi is a willing co-equal partner.

The story gives Naruto the edge over Madara in power because his Juubi is motivated by friendship (Power of Freindship etc etc tec). At the end of the battle, Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou will be needed to combine with NAruto and the Juubi to form a new combination SO6P. The New SO6P will restore the Land, and the people, and a new Cycle will begin. This new cycle will be forged from friendship and mutual understanding..I think this (although soppy) is the Moral of the Story of Naruto..the power of friendship to overcome differences.

I think that seems like the most likely ending considering how little time is left. I thought we would get more time to see both Naruto and Sasuke develop but with less that a year left it seems like everything is going to happen right here as part of this battle. Somehow Naruto and Sasuke are going to have to merge their abilities and the union of their powers will somehow create something that even Madara couldn't achieve. Honestly, I think that's a lame simplistic ending but I think it is the only way to wrap the story up in such a short time.

I still don't understand how Sasuke will be able to obtain eyes comparable to Madara's, considering he doesn't have Senju cells and it took many years for Madara to even awaken the Rinnegan let alone master it. I suspect maybe Obito will give Sasuke his cells or something, that's the only way I can see him getting a major upgrade in the immediate future. They also still haven't given any explanation for why Obito was so obsessed with Sasuke to begin with so that needs to be addressed. I suspect that Sasuke will somehow awaken the Rinnegan (though how that will be explained logically is anyone's guess) and Naruto will somehow get the power of Juubi (although I think it will be a new form of Juubi), then Sasuke will armor the Juubi with his Ultimate Susanoo and they will defeat Madara together.

I really had hope that Kishimoto wouldn't do the typical thing and speed power his characters ridiculously at the very end of the series but apparently that was too much to ask for.

Anyway all we can do is wait and see. I just hope that Kishimoto has some good answers for the countless questions that still remain. The thing that worries me, is if he hasn't even thought out how Madara will be defeated, there might be a lot of other things that he hasn't thought out and that lack of planning tends to be what leads to major plot holes.

Madara's eye power, at least as far as the Potential for Sasuke to supercede him, is not related to the Rinnegan itself. The Rinnegan was not just Madara's Eye Power as you note, it is instead the Result of His Power PLUS Stolen Senju power. So then the Comparison we read as spoken by Orochimaru was between Madara's native Sharingan and Sasuke's native Sharingan.

Sasuke will get all the Senju cells he needs from Naruto, whom Tobirama said could eclipse Hashirama. So we'll have Uchiha eyes that eclipse Madara's Sharingan, and Senju power (from Naruto) that eclipse Hashirama, both of which combine to eclipse Madara's Manufactured Rinnegan.

Finally, don't give up on Kishi yet. Naruto will end this year, but the year is still new, and there are at least 54 chapters that could yet be printed, and a lot can be squeezed into 54 chapters.

I am not perfect andI defy you to prove otherwise Growing Old Gracefully is an Oxymoron ... Mostly Moron !

@paul, there are 48 chapters a year (at best, assuming that the author doesn't take other breaks than holidays) and we already got one, then this leave 47, we should probably scrap about 2-4 for additional breaks other than holidays and we have 43 chapter remaining to the end, though it might be even less than that.

I think that I would rather prefer if Naruto and Sasuke encompassed the possibility that Younger and Older Brother hadn't achieved, the one that the tablet speaks about (there are two interpretations of the text), the cooperation of both lineages. In this case Sasuke would reach a level beyond EMS, thus proving that his eyes and potential have truly surpassed Madara's initial one, without achieving the Rinnegan.

A real Colossal Sword, is only Colossal when it is at least 5 times bigger than the thing you pilot:

Madara's eye power, at least as far as the Potential for Sasuke to supercede him, is not related to the Rinnegan itself. The Rinnegan was not just Madara's Eye Power as you note, it is instead the Result of His Power PLUS Stolen Senju power. So then the Comparison we read as spoken by Orochimaru was between Madara's native Sharingan and Sasuke's native Sharingan.

Sasuke will get all the Senju cells he needs from Naruto, whom Tobirama said could eclipse Hashirama. So we'll have Uchiha eyes that eclipse Madara's Sharingan, and Senju power (from Naruto) that eclipse Hashirama, both of which combine to eclipse Madara's Manufactured Rinnegan.

The problem is that we still don't even know how the Uzumaki clan relates to the Senju clan. Naruto hasn't really shown any abilities related to the senju clan. The closest thing we have seen is that his chakra cloak was able to transform the Zetsu clones into plants. We still need a lot more to be explained before we can confirm that Naruto's blood/chakra is comparable to Hashirama's. Tobirama said that Naruto may surpass Hashirama but that doesn't mean that their powers are comparable just that Naruto has the makings of a great Hokage.

Even if Sasuke can absorb Naruto's power, to have him suddenly be able to use all that power on Madara's level seems like a major stretch. Madara just finished bitch slapping Sasuke like a school boy and that was without eyes and without Sage chakra.

Naruto and Sasuke had enough trouble taking on Obito with the help of almost the entire alliance and with the help of the Hokages. Even with all that they barely won and only won because Obito was mentally unstable. Compared to Madara Obito is just a scared little boy. Obito had big guns but he didn't have the mental faculties or the necessary skill to use those powers properly. Madara is on a completely different level, he is more battle hardened, more experienced, more intelligent, more everything. Even with one Rinnegan Madara seems to be more than a match for all the Bijuu combined. We have already seen that Naruto and Sasuke's most powerful attacks have little to no effect on Madara at all. For them to conceivably beat him during this battle it will take a string of miracles and honestly I am already finding that their luck has been stretched thin.

I think that if The Hokages, the Kages, and Orochimaru teamed up and they could prevent Madara from fusing with the Bijuu then they could realistically win but that would involve the Hokages shouldering most of the load and seems like it would make Naruto and Sasuke almost unnecessary. Naruto and Sasuke need to be the ones to finish Madara in order to justify their character arcs but right now I am just not seeing how that could happen and apparently Kishimoto hasn't figured it out either. To me that sounds like a deus ex machina waiting to happen.

Originally Posted by paulbee

Finally, don't give up on Kishi yet. Naruto will end this year, but the year is still new, and there are at least 54 chapters that could yet be printed, and a lot can be squeezed into 54 chapters.

I wouldn't say I have given up. Although honestly, I have been having doubts for awhile now in terms of getting satisfying answers to many of the questions that have piled up over the last couple years. All I am saying is that learning that Kishimoto hasn't even thought out Madara's defeat this late in the game really makes me wonder how much of the series is a grand design and how much he is spinning off the top of his head. I have read a lot of books, a lot of comics, and watched a lot of series, and in my experience, the writers who plan and have their stories well thought out tend to be the ones who do the best work in the long run. I have been noticing a lot of things in Naruto that don't seem to add up lately but I have always assumed that Kishimoto will make sense of it all eventually and that he has thought it all through. Learning that he doesn't even know how the biggest antagonist in the series, will be defeated really just has me doubting Kishimoto's thought process.

As for how much is left. You have to consider that the last year of content didn't even cover the entire Juubi fight, it started at around the part Naruto gave the Kyuubi power to his friends and the part where Neji gets killed. In the Naruto world, the time that past over the entire year was only about 2 days in the Naruto world. Yes, there were several flashbacks in there but still, only about 2 days of actual real time story were covered in the entire year. If we assume that things move at a similar pace in 2014, that means that a hell of a lot of story and some very major issues need to be worked out very very quickly.